Inside a dark room designed to resemble the Grand Canyon, five Lafayette County Middle School sixth graders unlocked the final clue to open a trunk. One held a notebook and another a smartphone. Inside the trunk were multiple pairs of virtual-reality goggles.
One by one, each student stepped off a wooden platform into a large gray raft and placed VR goggles over their eyes. Soon, their bodies begin to jerk and sway. One grabbed for the side of the raft with a shriek. Another leaned to her left and erupted into laughter.
As their virtual white-water rafting experience ended, the students excitedly related the experience to their teacher.
“They listen to a message from a team leader that kind of gives them a little information to get started,” Grenada School District Balloon Quest Museum Director Tammie Cavanaugh told the Mississippi Free Press on March 25. “Then they just follow the instructions in the notebook in order, and it will tell them to either watch a video or find a certain chart or poster in the room. They have to answer three or four questions, and the answers to the questions give them a code, unlocking a box in the room.”
Lafayette Middle School sixth-grade PE teacher Melinda Scuggs watched as her group rode down the lake. She said she had no idea what the experience would be like when she arrived, but she found the whole concept exciting.
“You see them actually working together pretty kindly and working to figure out how to solve the riddle or problem,” she said. “Sometimes they weren’t getting it right and would say, ‘OK, let’s go back. Let’s read this again.’ It was neat to see them go through those steps and really work together.”
Her daughter Caroline agreed.
“A lot of the things look realistic, and it’s been so much fun,” the student said.
Balloon Quest is a science-based, escape-room-style museum that simulates a hot-air-balloon ride. Students experience six different ecosystems by solving a series of academic challenges.
The Grenada School District opened the Balloon Quest Museum on Feb. 1, 2023. The museum, which former Grenada School District Director of Communications Gail Daigneault devised, includes six exhibits that function like escape rooms and challenge students to explore, answer questions, and participate in experiences based on Mississippi kindergarten through eighth-grade science objectives.
Students learn about the principles of light in the Grenada Lake room and weather in the Mississippi room. The Grand Canyon room reveals processes like weathering and erosion, while the Chakchiuma Swamp room exposes students to biology, life and plant science. Daigneault adapted characteristics implemented at Disney World, like setting specific odors and augmented reality.
“If the kids go through the museum six times, as the six different explorers, then they will have been exposed to about 60% of all the science concepts for the state of Mississippi, grades K through eight.”
Using Local Resources
When Daigneault created the initial vision for Balloon Quest, the school district had obtained and was renovating the former National Guard Armory. An avid museum visitor, Daigneault decided the space would be great for a new science and technology-based museum.
“They decided to create something that would be fun but educational at the same time,” Cavanaugh said. “Escape Rooms were big, and that’s when they decided to do it like that.”
“They’ve got to have something to engage them, and technology is the best way to engage kids at this point in time,” Daigneault added later. “To solve the problems to open the lock boxes, they have to actually dig for the information.”
Local hands completed each part of the six-year project. Daigneault made cardboard models of each room. Grenada School District Assistant Technology Director Grayson Morrow removed the sound cards from donated toys and created custom sounds. District maintenance painted and built the rock walls in the Grand Canyon room. Students recorded the song that a staff member wrote for one of the exhibits. A local fisherman donated the boat. Another resident provided the reeds that line the outside of the swamp room. Local videographer Jamie Kornegay took photos of the Grenada Lake to create the panorama in one room.
“It was just quite amazing,” Daigneault said. “The talent that you have in the school district, you don’t really think about, but it’s there. Everybody’s there.”
The museum focuses primarily on the Grenada County area, which Daigneault felt would be important for students in the district. She also studied the state’s science standards to decide which environments would best tie the rooms to those requirements. The museum highlights the county’s environmental features and sites once significant to the area. All of the district’s middle-school students visit the museum during the school year with their science or computer-science class.
“I taught at a county school that doesn’t even exist anymore in Grenada, and (those children) had never been out of the county,” Daigneault said while standing in a room at Balloon Quest that resembled a tornado shelter. “They lived in the country and just didn’t get out much. They were only 11. The first room is to help them understand where they’re from and why that’s important.”
‘A History of Museums’
Grenada already had two museums in the district. In 1995, the district opened Kidzeum at Grenada Elementary’s PreK-3. The district created the Discovery Lab in the fourth- through fifth-grade building five years later. Daigneault said the middle school also has an exhibit titled “Walls that Teach,” which includes historical information on murals throughout the building. Each of the museums is designed to increase student achievement.
“Our district has a history of museums,” she said. “There are three more (than Balloon Quest), and they’re entirely different. Each one is very different.”
Daigneault said she doesn’t believe there is anything else like Balloon Quest in the country and encourages the public to visit the experience.
“I just hope that the kids get a lot out of it,” Daigneault said. “I hope it’s fun, and I hope they learn something while they’re at it and that it makes them want to go to museums.”
Balloon Quest is open to the public by appointment only. Educators from neighboring areas are welcome to schedule visits. For more information, go to grenadak12.com/programs/balloon-quest.
